A group of anti-tax activists has quietly launched an initiative campaign that could change how the city of Portland and other local governments in Oregon operate.

The Oregon Small Business Association is working with anti-tax activist Jason Williams to raise money and collect signatures for a “right to vote” proposal that would require local votes for all planned taxes and fees that would collect $750,000 in their first three years.

Williams co-founded the Taxpayer Association of Oregon in 2000 with the late Don McIntire, author of the law that radically changed the state’s property tax system, Measure 5.

Williams said the new initiative petition is “as basic and genuine as it needs to be. … It’s just taxes and fees. They seem to be increasing all the time. And when it’s a bad tax you don’t get to vote on it.”

The “right to vote” proposal is drafted to apply to “ordinances, resolutions and any other law of a local government.”

The group behind the mailing, the Oregon Small Business Association, is a registered nonprofit based in Clackamas. Its president is T.J. Reilly, the owner of Same Day Auto Service in Clackamas and an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the state senate in 2006.

The group’s secretary, Tom Maginnis, owns the Chuck E. Cheese’s franchise at 9120 S.E. Powell. Maginnis, a former press secretary for Sen. Mark Hatfield, ran for the Oregon House in 2012 and lost to Democrat Chris Garrett.

Maginnis has cut his Chuck E. Cheese’s staff from 72 to 36 people in recent years because expenses keep rising but the economy is not strong enough to raise prices.

“I pay 38 taxes out of this business if you count water as a tax, which I do,” he said. “Some are pennies, some are hundreds, some are thousands. But they all add up.”

Maginnis blamed the burden on state and local governments more interested in “giving money to risky startups and underwriting Nike and Intel” than helping small businesses.

As for city government, Maginnis said the taxes and fees in Portland have gotten out of control.

“Why does the city need so much money?” he asked. “I don’t trust them, and neither do other people.”

Williams said the plan is to gauge support before deciding whether to hire signature gatherers to get the measure onto the ballot in 2014.

The initiative is certain to draw the ire of elected officials and public education supporters already frustrated by the effects of Measure 5.

Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen said, “The last thing we need is one more ballot measure that hamstrings local governments’ ability to develop the best local solutions for our communities.”

Fast Fact

Measure 5, approved by voters in 1990, established strict limits on property taxes.